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Nathaniel Brown. (Photo via LinkedIn)

Nathaniel Brown, the former top communications executive at Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) who departed the company earlier this year, has joined TikTok as its new communications chief, The Desk has learned.

This week, Brown started his new role as Global Head of Corporate Communications for TikTok, the short-form video sharing and social media platform owned by China-based ByteDance. Brown will be in charge of all external corporate communication initiatives for the company. TikTok has not issued a statement on Brown’s hiring.

Brown left Wbd in January after spending five years with the company. His departure was mutual, according to reports, and came about a month after Axios said the top executives at Wbd and Paramount had held a secret meeting about the possibility of merging the two companies — something that ultimately did not happen. Brown was not implicated in the leak of the information to Axios,...

TikTok is looking to an experienced publicity executive to improve its outlook in the United States. Nathaniel Brown, a veteran of Discovery and its successor Warner Bros. Discovery, has been hired as TikTok’s Global Corporate Communications Chief.

Brown’s role will be based in New York, where he will report to TikTok’s Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Zenia Mucha. In true publicist fashion, Mucha’s announcement of the Brown hire was straight and to the point. “I’m happy to announce we’ve hired a new global head of corporate comms,” she wrote in a memo to staff. “Nathaniel Brown joins us today to lead this important function.”

At Warner Bros Discovery, Brown played a crucial launch in the rebranding and relaunch of Max, which needed a makeover after the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services came together under a single owner. At TikTok, he’ll face a...

Nathaniel Brown, who ran PR for Discovery during and following its merger with Warner Bros., has found a new role at TikTok.

The executive has joined the social media platform with the title of global head of corporate communications, per an internal memo. Brown, who will be based in New York, starts today in the role, reporting to Zenia Mucha, chief communications officer.

During a five-year run, the executive was the top communications aide for David Zaslav as Warner Bros. Discovery took shape following the spinoff of Time Warner assets from AT&T to Discovery in 2022. His prior work includes roles at 21st Century Fox, MTV Networks and SiriusXM.

He’ll now be joining a team led by another chief comms executive from a studio conglomerate, Zenia Mucha, a longtime top PR officer to Bob Iger who left Disney in 2021 during the short-lived tenure of CEO Bob Chapek.

His years as...

Exclusive: The future of TikTok is still somewhat uncertain, but who will be helping to hone the social media platform’s message has become a lot clearer today.

Just over a year after exiting Warner Bros Discovery, Nathaniel Brown has joined TikTok, as Chief Brand and Communications Officer, Zenia Mucha revealed to staffers this morning.

Earlier Monday, Bob Iger’s ex-right hand told TikTok employees around the world that: “I’m happy to announce we’ve hired a new Global Head of Corporate Comms. @Nathaniel Brown joins us today to lead this important function, reporting to me. He’s based in New York City. Nathaniel comes from Warner Bros. Discovery where he most recently served as Chief Communications Officer.”

By David Zaslav’s side for almost five years and ending that union as Wbd’s Corporate Communications leader and company spokesman, ‘Brown joined Discovery in 2019. Before that he was SVP...

David Zaslav can now boast of having a former Press Secretary to the President of the United States among his corporate inner circle. However, even with the trophy of Robert Gibbs now on his shelf, the Warner Bros Discovery CEO may do well to remember the transition from DC to Hollywood has proved full of pitfalls over the years.

“Everyone wants a Dee Dee Myers, nobody wants to end up with a Geoff Morrell,” an industry insider notes in reference to Myers, the top ex-Bill Clinton aide who had a smooth five-year reign at Warner Bros, and the former ABC News correspondent and Pentagon spokesman who flamed out in 2022 after just four contentious months as Disney’s communications boss. “What works in campaigns and in DC, doesn’t always work in L.A.,” the insider added, stressing the pacing and stakes of Hollywood PR moves at a different click...

It is not exactly a lateral move going from serving President Obama to serving the President (and CEO) of Warner Bros. Discovery, but Robert Gibbs still has his work cut out for him.

Gibbs, who was President Barack Obama’s first White House press secretary, has joined Warner Bros. Discovery (Wbd) as its chief communications and public affairs officer, the company announced on Tuesday. As of August 5, 2024, he will oversee its corporate and business communications as well as its public affairs. In other words, he will be David Zaslav’s direct mouthpiece.

Zaslav could use one. His former comms chief, Nathaniel Brown, exited in January, a bit ahead of all that “Coyote vs. Acme” drama. Brown was certainly in the thick of things for the “Batgirl” saga.

In a press statement announcing Gibbs, Zaslav called his new direct report “the right leader” for “this transformative time in our industry.”

For...

Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced the hiring of Robert Gibbs, former press secretary in the Obama White House, as its chief communications and public affairs officer.

Gibbs will start the role on Aug. 5 and report to CEO David Zaslav. Gibbs takes over the top comms job at the media conglomerate after the exit of Nathaniel Brown in January. Word of Gibbs’ appointment at Wbd emerged late Monday.

“At this transformative time in our industry, Robert is the right leader to assume this new, critical global role, as we continue to grow the Warner Bros. Discovery brand and presence around the world,” Zaslav said in a statement Tuesday. “Robert is an insightful and respected leader with experience spanning Fortune 500 companies, the White House and winning political campaigns. He will be an invaluable part of the team as we create the most captivating stories and content for consumers around the world. I...

Updated with official announcement: As Deadline reported overnight, Warner Bros Discovery has named Robert Gibbs Chief Communications Officer. He will also be the company’s Public Affairs Officer, a newly created dual role overseeing Wbd’s corporate and business communications as well as public affairs.

He starts August 5, reporting to CEO David Zaslav.

“At this transformative time in our industry, Robert is the right leader to assume this new, critical global role, as we continue to grow the Warner Bros. Discovery brand and presence around the world,” Zaslav said. “Robert is an insightful and respected leader with experience spanning Fortune 500 companies, the White House, and winning political campaigns. He will be an invaluable part of the team as we create the most captivating stories and content for consumers around the world. I am thrilled to welcome him to Wbd.”

“I couldn’t be happier to join Warner Bros. Discovery and...

From left: Former President Barack Obama walks with Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs along the Colonnade of the White House in 2010.

Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has been hired by Warner Bros Discovery (Wbd) to serve as the company’s new chief communications executive, according to a report published this week.

On Tuesday, the Hollywood Reporter said Gibbs was hired to succeed Nathaniel Brown, who left earlier this year following a five-year career with the company and its predecessor, Discovery Communications.

Gibbs most recently served as a partner at Bully Pulpit International, a communications firm that counts McDonald’s, General Mills, Walmart, the ACLU and the Biden-Harris campaign among its clients.

Gibbs served in the White House as President Barack Obama’s press secretary from 2009 to 2011, before leaving the Obama administration to work as the chief communications officer at McDonald’s.

Warner Bros. Discovery is set to name Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary to former President Barack Obama, as its new communications chief, Variety has confirmed. The company is expected to make the announcement official on Monday, and is believed to have already informed Wbd chief David Zaslav’s direct reports with the news.

Gibbs will take over the role from former corporate communications chief Nathaniel Brown, who exited the company in January. The exec will work closely with Zaslav in shaping the company’s corporate messaging and in other arenas. The search for Brown’s replacement took six months as Zaslav was believed to be searching for a major name to fill the role, and sources said the exec believes he’s excited by the pick.

Gibbs was a longtime senior advisor to Obama and served as his press secretary from 2009 to 2011. He began working for Obama during his U.

It might just be the most difficult job in Hollywood: working as the flack for a studio CEO with an insatiable hunger for press — as long as it’s of the fawning kind. Six months after Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief communications officer and Murdoch alum Nathaniel Brown’s surprise departure from the company, David Zaslav is close to naming a chief spin doctor following a desperate high-level search for Brown’s replacement, Hot Source has learned. The absence is keenly felt at a company in dire need of someone to help deflect attention from Zas’s monster pay package and Warner Discovery’s likely loss of NBA rights.

The new flack, described as a “big name out of the box” will oversee both policy and comms, and will come with political experience Hot Source has learned. “It’s a Geoff Morrell type but not Geoff Morrell!,” a Wbd insider...

Canal+ Group and Warner Bros Discovery have announced the renewal of their exclusive premium pay TV agreement for Warner Bros Pictures films.

The multi-year agreement will allow Canal+ Group to continue offering to its subscribers exclusive access to Warner Bros Pictures films six months after their theatrical release in France.

This catalogue will include box office blockbuster Barbie – the biggest movie of the last 12 months with a global box office of nearly $1.5billion – and Wonka, starring Timothee Chalamet, currently on a box office figure of just over $400million.

Other titles include The Flash, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, Blue Beetle, The Color Purple and The Nun II.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s catalogue includes franchises including Batman, Lethal Weapon, Ocean’s Eleven, Matrix and Mad Max.

This news comes the same weekend as reports that Warner Bros Discovery’s Nathaniel Brown is departing as its Corp Comms Chief. Deadline has learned this is an amicable departure,...

Nathaniel Brown is departing Warner Bros Discovery as its Corp Comms Chief, Deadline has learned. It is an amicable departure, we hear. Brown will segue out of the post during the next month.

“I realize there is never a perfect or easy time to make such a transition, but the start of the new year feels as good as any,” said Brown in a note to employees (read it in full below). In the immediate future, Brown plans to take some down time before returning to the corp comms field.

In a note to employees, Wbd CEO David Zaslav praised Brown, saying, “I have been incredibly fortunate to have him by my side during one of the most pivotal and transformative periods for our industry.”

Brown was named to the post after the merger came together back in May 2022.

Brown led global communications and media relations and served as the conglom’s lead spokesperson.

Warner Bros. Discovery corporate communications chief Nathaniel Brown is exiting the company.

CEO David Zaslav announced the news in a memo to staff Friday. Variety has learned Brown decided to step down himself, following his tenure getting the company through its merger between the legacy Discovery and WarnerMedia, which closed in April 2022. A respected communications veteran, Brown also led the PR strategy for the launch of Max, the combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer, in May 2023.

“Nathaniel is hugely talented, one of the absolute best in the business and I have been incredibly fortunate to have him by my side during one of the most pivotal and transformative periods for our industry,” Zaslav wrote. “Since joining us in 2019 following an accomplished tenure at 21st Century Fox, he has been a tireless and formidable advocate for the company and for me. Among his many accomplishments, he played a critical role in...

Click here to read the full article.

Warner Bros. Discovery has unveiled its restructured communications team, led by Nathaniel Brown after he recently came on board as chief corporate communications officer.

Brown, who serves as the studio’s lead spokesperson and oversees all global communications and media relations, announced former Fox comms exec Megan Klein will be in charge of corporate communications.

And Laura Watson, who recently joined Warner Bros. Discovery from The Walt Disney Co., will oversee executive communications. Brown previously led corporate communications for Discovery, before it merged with WarnerMedia earlier this year.

As the communications teams at Warner Bros. and Discovery are combined, the studio also indicated Gregory Ho, Lauren McCabe, Janine Richardson, Caroline Rittenberry, Jennifer Toner, Rob Wheeler, Laura Young and Emily Zalenski will leave after a transition period.

Before joining Discovery in 2019, Brown was senior vp corporate affairs at 21st Century Fox and News Corp....

Three-plus months after emerging from a $43 billion merger, Warner Bros Discovery has finalized its communications executive roster.

Nathaniel Brown, who formerly headed communications for Discovery and was named chief corporate communications officer at Wbd in May, conveyed the news to employees in an internal memo. (Read it below.)

Megan Klein, who worked with Brown previously at 21st Century Fox and then held a senior role at Fox Corp., has been set as a key lieutenant reporting to Brown. She oversees West Coast communications, including areas like media relations; finance/investor relations; government affairs; diversity, equity and inclusion; corporate social responsibility; and legal.

Along with new titles and posts for eight U.S.-based execs and two in the international ranks, Brown’s memo disclosed that eight veterans of the pre-merger companies are preparing to exit Wbd after a transition period. The list of VPs or higher-ranked execs who are departing includes Gregory Ho,...

As the dust on the Warner Bros. Discovery merger settles, the company has set its global corporate communications and media relations team.

The team members and their roles were announced in an internal email by chief corporate communications officer Nathaniel Brown.

“It’s been a very busy, productive few months since the launch of our new combined company. During this time, I’ve really enjoyed meeting and talking with many of you and remain grateful for your openness, insights and patience throughout this process,” Brown wrote to staffers. “Both legacy companies bring tremendous talent, and this is especially true when it comes to the Communications function, which makes me even more excited about the team we’re building together for the future. Unfortunately, it has also made for some really tough decisions as we streamline the organization and necessarily eliminate duplicative roles.”

Among the team are Megan Klein in the corporate communications role,...

Director Nathaniel Brown and Expected End Entertainment are looking to fill 12 roles in “The Last Time,” a feature film shooting in the Atlanta, Georgia area. The story “pulls the mask off domestic violence through the story of a power couple whose seemingly perfect public life contradicts what goes on behind closed doors.” Sounds intriguing? Filming will take place Aug. 1–21, and several supporting and day player roles are now available. For more information, check out the full casting notice here, and be sure to scan the rest of our Atlanta audition listings! Want audition advice? Watch here:...

A medium-height, slightly nervous, shy-seeming, fast-talking man, Gaspar Noé doesn’t really announce himself as the formally audacious director behind some of this millennium’s most assaultive and, speaking broadly, extreme narrative films. Perhaps that (altogether friendly) personality more clearly befits his latest film, Love. What’s been referred to for the years of its development as a “3D porn movie,” but hews closer to Last Tango in Paris or The Mother and the Whore: a slow, sad, and only intermittently confrontational picture that mostly uses its format as a tool for rendering spaces and memories more immediate. The inevitably downbeat ending, communicated early, lends the sex an uncomfortable air — one where even 3D cum shots carry a certain sort of melancholy.

Despite his work’s general reliance on images over words, Noé is a very verbose artist, taking a question about one thing and providing an answer about two others.

Argentinian filmmaker Gaspar No&#233 is back with his first feature film in five years, and it's a doozy! Love debuted at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, and today, Vice has debuted the first trailer for this 3D porn film, featuring real sex scenes that weren't simulated. The romantic drama has been picked up by Alchemy and given an October 30 release date. The film will expand into additional markets and VOD platforms starting November 6, but it isn't known exactly what markets the film will expand to.

January the 1st, early morning. The telephone rings. Murphy (Karl Glusman) wakes up next to his young wife and 2-year-old child. He listens to his voicemail: Electra's mother, sick with worry, wants to know whether he has heard from her daughter. Electra (Aomi Muyock) has been missing for a long time. She's afraid something really bad has happened to her. Over the course of a long rainy day,...

Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes will in fact report to James and Lachlan Murdoch when the sons of Rupert Murdoch assume control of 21st Century Fox on July 1. The revelation comes after the Ailes-run Fox Business Network reported June 11 that Ailes would continue to report to Rupert even after Rupert handed official control of the company to his sons. "Roger will report to Lachlan and James but will continue his unique and long-standing relationship with Rupert,” 21st Century Fox spokesperson Nathaniel Brown said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. Rupert Murdoch

read more...

For some, movies are occasionally too violent, vulgar or plain boring to sit through. Ryan recalls some memorable cinema walk-outs...

For better or worse, there’s nothing quite like watching a movie in the cinema. There’s the sense that you’re all sharing a new experience. The feeling of expectancy when a movie the whole audience has been looking forward to seeing unfolds on the screen. The enjoyment of laughing in unison at a golden comic moment.

On the flip side, there’s the uniquely unpleasant sensation of a person behind you kicking the back of your seat. Or the horrendous human being who can’t resist checking his phone for the duration of a movie, meaning you end up having to ignore an eerie blue glow emanating from the corner of your eye for about 120 minutes.

Memories like these, whether good or bad, are all part of the cinema-going experience,...

The difficulty in counting down films so clearly influenced by Kubrick is that there are certain directors who are just tailor-made for it. So, you start to run into situations like this section of the list, where two directors have two films and two other directors had a film mentioned in the last section. But that’s the way it goes. Much of Kubrick’s style isn’t reflected in the work of, say, Todd Phillips. Or Todd Haynes, for that matter.

30. Inception (2010)

Directed by Christopher Nolan

What makes it Kubrickian? As directors go, few rival the sense of complete control over his films like Christopher Nolan, famous for his obsessive attention to detail, much like Kubrick. With Inception, Nolan dialed up the control, creating multiple worlds set within dream landscapes, painting incredibly stunning shots and moments. Focusing on Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his team of dream surveyors, Inception is...

21st Century Fox has promoted both Dan Berger and Nathaniel Brown to Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications. Both are moving up from VP, Corporate Comm and will continue to report to Julie Henderson, Evp and Chief Communications Officer. Brown, based in Fox’s New York headquarters, joined then-News Corp in 2012 from MTV where he served as Svp Corporate Communications. Before that he was Svp Corporate Comm at Xm Satellite Radio, where he oversaw the public relations campaign around the company’s merger with Sirius. Los Angeles-based Berger first joined Fox in 2006 and has held a variety of executive communications roles at both the business unit and corporate level. He has served as VP, Corporate Communications for 21st Century Fox (previously News Corp) since 2009, and previously was VP, Corporate Communications at the company’s Fox Interactive media division.

Dan Berger and Nathaniel Brown have both been elevated to the title of senior vice president of corporate communications at 21st Century Fox, the company announced Monday. Brown and Berger previously held corpcomm vice president titles. They will continue to report to executive vice president and chief communications officer Julie Henderson, who made the announcement. Also read: 21st Century Fox Reports Q4 Revenue Gain “Dan and Nathaniel are both incredibly talented communications executives who have been instrumental in successfully communicating to media the rationale behind many of our most high profile and significant moves over the past year and beyond,...

(Reuters) - Hulu's board has approached potential buyers to gauge their interest in buying the online video service, three sources close to the company told Reuters, as owners News Corp (Nwsa.O) and Walt Disney (Dis.N) weigh what to do with their interests in the five-year-old company.

The board sounded out several possible buyers as part of an internal strategic review begun recently, but it has not received a formal offer, one of the sources said on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. It was unclear how many parties Hulu had contacted.

Hulu spokeswoman Elisa Schreiber and News Corp's Nathaniel Brown declined to comment. Disney had no immediate comment.

News Corp and Disney are also considering other options, including buying each other out, one of the sources said on Monday on condition of anonymity.

Finding a buyer will be difficult because most of Hulu's...

Nathaniel Brown will join News Corp. as its new vice president of corporate affairs and communications, the media company said Monday. Brown will be based in New York and replaces Jack Horner, who will join Warner Bros. in a senior publicity job in its motion picture unit.  Brown comes to News Corp. from Viacom, where he ran corporate communications for MTV. Prior to MTV, Nathaniel ran corporate communications at Xm Radio, where he oversaw communications for the Sirius/Xm merger. He also had a senior role at Sony BMG's corporate communications group. Brown will...

“Enter the Void” will be loathed by a lot of people. Dismissed as a pretentious stoner flick trying desperately to dazzle. And I won’t completely disagree. But French director Gaspar Noé’s third effort is also hard to ignore.

Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) is a young, soft-spoken American drug dealer who moves about almost exclusively in the nighttime of Tokyo’s neon jungle. Caught in the middle of a bad deal, he is singled out and shot to death by police. Oscar’s spirit leaves his body, and for the rest of film, floats through walls, soars above skyscrapers and powers into the minds of his still-living friends and relatives.

“Enter the Void” brims with gorgeous, psychedelic visuals and shocking depictions of horrific and taboo happenings, daring you to flinch. If you know anything about Gaspar Noé and his other films, “I Stand Alone” (1998) and “Irréversible” (2002), then you won’t...

Chicago – Gaspar Noe’s “Enter the Void” is one hell of a trip. Unapologetically inspired by experiences with hallucinogens, the film is such a unique, bizarre, and memorable experience that one has to recommend it simply for its audacity. You’ve never seen anything quite like “Enter the Void” outside of anime. The uncut version released on Blu-ray is too bloated, running nearly three hours, but there’s so much to like here that the film’s flaws can be forgiven.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

From the very beginning, including a credit sequence that should have most viewers instantly mesmerized, “Enter the Void” is unique. Here’s all you really need to know — the film unfolds in first-person Pov (with the occasional third-person, over-the-shoulder flashbacks) even after the lead character dies. That’s right. Death doesn’t stop “Enter the Void.” In fact, it’s kind of what it’s all about.

Starring: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy

Director: Gaspar Noe

The Scoop: This experimental French film has been dividing audiences since it debuted at Cannes. Some feel its psychedelic visual style is a work of genius, while others argue that the movie itself is in need of an intervention. The plot is something about a drug dealer who goes to Japan and gets shot to death, but persists as a ghost who floats around, watching events and entering people’s dreams.

Special Features: Deleted scenes, trailers

Not rated, 161 min. | Watch the trailer...

Following up our DVD giveaway for Enter the Void, as promised, here's your chance to win it on Blu-ray. On January 25th it hit shelves. When we reviewed it here, we were quite fond of it and we even listed it in our Top 10 Overlooked Films of 2010. Folks, this is one you're really going to want to see. Luckily for you, we've got quite a few copies to give away. As the second round of our Enter the Void sweepstakes, we're offering up 2 copies on Blu-ray to our readers, and to find out how to win just read on.

Newcomer Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta (HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) star as a brother and sister trapped in the hellish nighttime world of Tokyo where he deals drugs and she works as a stripper. A crime gone bad leads to shocking violence and then moments of transcendence in which...

[Update: Oh, and we forgot to mention, these DVDs are autographed by Gaspar Noe. Sweet.]

Eight years after Gaspar Noe put out his previous feature film, he delivered a story of love and drugs in a trippy little film called Enter the Void. On January 25th it hits shelves. When we reviewed it here, we were quite fond of it and we even listed it in our Top 10 Overlooked Films of 2010. Folks, this is one you're really going to want to see. Luckily for you, we've got quite a few copies to give away. First up, we're giving away three copies on DVD, and if you want to know how to win, just keep reading.

Newcomer Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta (HBO’s Boardwalk Empire) star as a brother and sister trapped in the hellish nighttime world of Tokyo where he deals drugs and she works as a stripper. A crime gone bad leads to shocking violence and then moments of transcendence in...

By Christopher Stipp

The Archives, Right Here

Check out my other column, This Week In Trailers, at SlashFilm.com and follow me on Twitter under the name: Stipp

IP Man 2 -Review

It’s Sammo Hung who deserves the kudos for this sequel.

It may be Donnie Yen’s reprisal of Ip Man, the man who would mentor Bruce Lee if you’re unfamiliar with this man’s provenance, who is bringing the same kind of furious fists and feet that he brought to the first film or director Wilson Yip’s fresh take on a genre that has been beaten like the prunish face of any man coming out of the well-choreographed fight sequences but it’s really all about the action when it comes to Ip Man 2. It’s the latter of these points that explains why this film needs to be consumed and enjoyed for what it is and not,...

Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about what I consider to be the greatest thing since sliced bread… Netflix streaming movies instantly to your computer and/or compatible home theater. As Netflix makes movies titles available in their already vast and eclectic catalog of rentals via online streaming technology, I’ll spotlight the one’s I feel are worth taking note of as they become available.

In this, the first edition of Netflix Nuggets, we’ll feature five films; two brand new and wildly unique foreign films, one new documentary, and two classics from master filmmakers.

The Ballad Of Cable Hogue (1970)

[streaming of Ballad Of Cable Hogue available only until 1/31/2011]

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Synopsis: Abandoned in the desert, prospector Cable Hogue survives his ordeal when he discovers a freshwater spring. Transforming the oasis into a much needed pit stop on the local stagecoach route, the resourceful Hogue sits back to wait for his double-crossing former partners.

Just added today on Netflix: My top two choices of 2010? The Movie Gods must really hate my social life. Take a trip to the afterlife, visit a bizarre Greek family and weep for a Peruvian atrocity in these bleak streams.

• • •

Enter The Void

When Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a foreign drug dealer living in Tokyo with his stripper sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta), is fatally shot in a police raid, his spirit leaves his body in a hallucinatory odyssey that merges his past, present and future into a chaotic whole. This riveting third film from provocative French auteur Gaspar Noe screened in competition at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Cyril Roy co-stars.

It's good to know that should you feel like getting wet but short on Pcp, you only have to fire Netflix up and watch this movie to get roughly the same effect. I've twice written and gushed about this...

Red: "Robert Schwentke's Red comes at a bit of an inopportune time. This year has seen a surprising overload of "group of killers and their hijinks" movies -- The Losers, The Expendables, Operation: Endgame, The A-Team -- all movies about with very similar concepts. They're all humorous films about assassins/government operatives/mercenaries who get betrayed in some fashion, and are forced to gather together and shoot people and blow things up in an effort to clear their name. Being the last one on the list doesn't help things, either. That said, Red has a few things going for it. It's easily the most talented cast, the premise is a little more original, and it's tongue-in-cheek humor is a little less broad and a little more clever." - Tk

Secretariat: "The moment you see "Walt Disney Presents" in the opening credits for a film, you know almost exactly what to expect.

This week has been busy some amazing news coming in from the Sundance film festival. To mix things up here is our weekly post of notable films coming out on DVD/Blu-ray and some cool films you can add to your instant Netflix queue. Which movies are you looking forward to that are set for release this week? 

Blu-ray Releases:

Dead Space: Aftermath

Add To Queue

Synopsis:

The year is 2509. The first-responder ship Usg O'Bannon has arrived at Aegis VII, attempting to hold the planet together in the wake of the catastrophe that destroyed the Ishimura. But only four members of the O'Bannon crew have survived, and the catastrophe remains unchecked. What went wrong? What secrets do they hide? And what new threats have been revealed...in the Aftermath!

Enter The Void

Add To Queue

Synopsis:

Controversial and brilliant director Gasper Noe follows his worldwide sensation Irreversible with another triumph.

"Dogtooth" (2009)

Directed by Giorgos Lanthimos

Released by Kino

"Enter the Void" (2010)

Directed by Gaspar Noé

Released by Mpi Home Video

Somehow it's fitting that two of last year's most dangerous films will be hitting DVD shelves the same week, both being favorites of the IFC.com staff. "Dogtooth," Lanthimos' much-debated Un Certain Regard winner from Cannes, concerns the lives of three culturally isolated children -- two daughters and a son, who range from mid-teens to early 20s -- fenced in by their parents' country home, who receive a reeducation when their lone connection to the outside world, a female security guard for their parents' business, introduces them to the joys of sex and Sylvester Stallone films. Meanwhile, "Irreversible" provocateur Noé's latest is a wildly ambitious 155-minute extravaganza set inside the mind of a drug dealer told from the first-person perspective. Nathaniel Brown and "Boardwalk Empire" star Paz de la Huerta...

DVD Playhouse: January 2011

By

Allen Gardner

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (20th Century Fox) Sequel to the seminal 1980s film catches up with a weathered, but still determined Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, who seems to savor every syllable of Allan Loeb and Stephen Schiff’s screenplay) just out of jail and back on the comeback trail. In attempting to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter (Carey Mulligan), Gekko forges a reluctant alliance with her fiancé (Shia Labeouf), himself an ambitious young turk who finds himself seduced by Gekko’s silver tongue and promise of riches. Lifeless film is further evidence of director Oliver Stone’s decline. Once America’s most exciting filmmaker, Stone hasn’t delivered a film with any teeth since 1995’s Nixon. Labeouf and Mulligan generate no sparks on-screen, and the story feels forced from the protracted opening to the final, Disney-esque denouement. Only a brief cameo by Charlie Sheen,...

Enter The Void – Sunday January 2 at 9:50pm and Saturday January 8 at 3:00pm @Ritz

Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void is certainly one of the most talked about and controversial films of the year. Its nearly three-hour running time and unconventional storytelling style leaves most audiences either hallucinating or just deeply mystified. But while the film is daringly perplexing, Enter The Void is also stunning. “A hyper-poetic head trip of degradation and rebirth,” writes Boston Globe critic Ty Burr, the film is “most assuredly not for pregnant women, the seizure-prone, or the faint of heart.”

We were lucky enough to host the film twice already, once when it played at SXSW in March and again at Fantastic Fest in September. Since then, the film has been playing around the country in an edited version, with a full 20 minutes missing. That wouldn’t do for us. But when IFC talked...

Enter The Void – Sunday January 2 at 9:50pm and Saturday January 8 at 3:00pm @Ritz

Gaspar Noé’s Enter The Void is certainly one of the most talked about and controversial films of the year. Its nearly three-hour running time and unconventional storytelling style leaves most audiences either hallucinating or just deeply mystified. But while the film is daringly perplexing, Enter The Void is also stunning. “A hyper-poetic head trip of degradation and rebirth,” writes Boston Globe critic Ty Burr, the film is “most assuredly not for pregnant women, the seizure-prone, or the faint of heart.”

We were lucky enough to host the film twice already, once when it played at SXSW in March and again at Fantastic Fest in September. Since then, the film has been playing around the country in an edited version, with a full 20 minutes missing. That wouldn’t do for us. But when IFC talked...

In the screening I attended, the cinema accidentally started the wrong movie. After 1 minute the audience started to whisper, "This is too normal. Where is the strobe lighting?" The screen goes blank again. Then a caption appeared: 'Warning: This film contains very heavy strobe lighting.' The usher standing by the isle commented, 'Oh sorry folks. This is the right movie...'

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It's imitating to be issued any kind of warning before a screening especially when it encroaches the arena of health. But I am prepared. You see Enter The Void comes from the fertile mind of Gaspar Noé, the gentleman behind Irreversible, one of the most abrasive and challenging viewing experiences I've had. I'm not a fan but I do believe it has merit to exist. It's far from a bad movie. I felt Noé seen cinema as a way to scar people. I disagreed in Irreversible's case.

Enter The Void

Stars: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Olly Alexander | Written by Lucile Hadzihalilovic & Gaspar Noe | Directed by Gaspar Noe

Controversy surrounds Gaspar Noe’s films like a swarm of bees. And not without reason: If Irreversible’s 10-minute rape scene had you reaching for the door, and graphic, prolonged nudity makes you more than a little uncomfortable, then Enter The Void may not be the film for you. If not, you can expect a film experience like no other.

Let’s get the plot out of the way: siblings Oscar (Brown) and Linda (Boardwalk Empire’s de la Huerta) are living in Tokyo, with Oscar making a living selling drugs to his friends and Linda working in a strip bar. The beginning of the film (seen from Oscar’s point of view, complete with blinks) sees Oscar travel to a deal which is really a police drug bust,...

Nov 15, 2010

Oscar has just scored Dmt, a drug which takes you right to the best parts of 2001: A Space Odyssey and mostly makes the movie screen resemble a really neat computer screensaver. He probably should have kept refreshing that screen because tonight is not going to go well for Oscar (Nathaniel Brown). Enter the Void is the first film in eight years from French provocateur Gaspar Noe. Following the notorious rape-revenge bludgeoning Irreversible (2002), he courts controversy once again with this exhausting mind trip.

Following potential seizure-inducing strobe light opening titles, Enter the Void ...Read more at MovieRetriever.com...

Enter The Void

Directed by Gaspar Noe

Starring Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn

Release date: September 24, 2010 (limited)

The void, according to flamboyant director Gaspar Noe, is life. What a pessimistic outlook. But Noe does present to us through his new film Enter The Void potent, disturbing, and rotten instances that back his pessimistic perspective. As soon as we are born into this world (Noe gives us an unprecedented example of this) we have entered the void, and we only enhance the blackness of that void by making ourselves susceptible by living a life that approaches the disgusting, sick, and horror-stricken. His film is a fully realized portrait of a decaying city (Tokyo), but is it really about the world? And a fully realized portrait of its sinful inhabitants (Oscar, Linda, and their friends), but is it really supposed to represent all of humanity?...

Enter the Void Directed by: Gaspar Noé Written by: Lucile Hadzihalilovic and Gaspar Noé Starring: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Olly Alexander One thing’s for sure, you won’t leave Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void with comparisons ready. More than likely, you won’t want to think about it at all. Over two and a quarter hours, the film hijacks your consciousness like a potent hallucinogen, and leaves you feeling burnt out and brain-fried on the other end. Is it worth the trip? Yes, with an asterisk. After all, the opportunity to see something this flagrantly original comes but once in a blue moon, yet it isn’t the sort of experience many will enjoy having. Enter the Void begins with a strobing title sequence that explodes into a first person account of drugs and death in Tokyo; it ought to come with a seizure warning.

Enter the Void is unlike most films you see in the mainstream, a transformative experience so intense that, by the end, your eyes might be bleeding. It’s director Gaspar Noe – a true visionary in every sense of the word, pushing the possibilities of the camera into a stratosphere of its own. Known for being the bad boy auteur in France, Noe’s previous film Irreversible polarized critics for similar reasons in that it dealt with very brutal and uncomfortable situations presented in such a fashion it was hard not to be bowled over by it. The subject matter of his new film is also dark, very dark and can perhaps be construed as a ‘psychedelic melodrama’ between drug addicts, criminals, whores and everything in between. Still, at it’s core Enter the Void is a spiritual and uncanny experience that will most likely leave you unnerved and mesmerized.

After...

Adults Only! One Week Only! Starts Friday, October 8th!  Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void tells a story of Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a small-time drug dealer in Tokyo and his sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta, Choke, Anamorph) who he brings to Japan to an attempt reunite them as a family. Oscar has a penchant for Dmt. Dmt is produced naturally in the body and believed to play a role in mediating the visual effects of natural dreaming as well as near-death experiences. One night, Oscar is caught in a sting operation and shot. As Oscar dies his spirit leaves his body. But refusing to...

Those of you who have escaped the foreboding lure of Gaspar Noé's infamous Irréversible (2002) may find yourselves drawn into the psychedelic clutches of his latest film, Enter the Void (2009). In comparison to its predecessor, which featured a grueling, nine minute long-shot of the beautiful Monica Bellucci being raped (not to mention a sequence showcasing the graphic, lethal bludgeoning of a man with a fire extinguisher) , Enter the Void is fairly accessible from a narrative standpoint. The film focuses on Oscar (Nathaniel Brown), a drug dealer running the streets of Tokyo, trying to make ends meet so that he can support his displaced sister, Linda (Paz de la Huerta). As the film opens, we watch as Oscar and Linda look down at the neon-soaked streets of the alienating metropolis. After a brief discussion about the city and their lives together, Linda leaves for work at a strip club and Oscar indulges his work habit,...

(Pictured right: Gaspar Noe and Simon Abrams. Photo taken by Susan Norget)

Though writer/director Gaspar Noé is probably most well-known for the graphic and seemingly interminable rape scene in Irreversible, his second feature, it's very hard to make charges of being a provocateur stick. The man's intuitive style of filmmaking and fascination with the interplay between corporeality, taboos and the afterlife precludes the assumption that he is knowingly trying to push your buttons. Enter the Void, his trippy third feature, continues in that tradition, focusing on the risqué relationship between Oscar (Nathaniel Brown) and his estranged sister Linda (Paz de la Huerta).

Enter the Void is, amongst other things: a 161 minute-long hallucinogenic trip, a love story, a roller coaster ride, a ghost story, a very loose memoirs, an homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey and a further extension of Noé's career-long exploration of the role of rough sex in a Buddhist-inspired cycle of reincarnation.